n. A former period of someone's life kept secret or thought to be shameful: a family with a checkered past.

n. Grammar The past tense.

n. Grammar A verb form in the past tense.

adv. So as to pass by or go beyond: He waved as he walked past.

prep. Beyond in time; later than or after: past midnight; a quarter past two.

prep. Beyond in position; farther than: The house is a mile past the first stoplight. They walked past the memorial in silence.

prep. Beyond the power, scope, extent, or influence of: The problem is past the point of resolution.

prep. Beyond in development or appropriateness: The child is past drinking from a bottle. You're past sucking your thumb, so don't do it.

prep. Beyond the number or amount of: The child couldn't count past 20. See Usage Note at pass.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

n. The period of time that has already happened, in contrast to the present and the future.

n. The past tense.

adv. in a direction that passes

prep. beyond in place, quantity or time

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English

adj. Of or pertaining to a former time or state; neither present nor future; gone by; elapsed; ended; spent

adv. By; beyond.

n. A former time or state; a state of things gone by.

prep. Beyond, in position, or degree; further than; beyond the reach or influence of.

prep. Beyond, in time; after.

prep. Above; exceeding; more than.

from The Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

Gone by; belonging to a time previous to this; not present nor future: as, past time: one's past life.

Hence In the predicate, ago.

Spent; ended; accomplished; existing no more; over and done with.

That has completed a full term and is now retired: as, a past (or passed) master in free-masonry. See master.

That indicates or notes past time: as, a past participle; the past tense.

n. The time that has preceded the present; a former or bygone time, or the events of that time; that part of the history, life, or experiences of a person or thing that is passed: as, to forget the past; an unfortunate past.

Beyond.

Beyond in position; further than; also, by and beyond: as, the house stands a little past the junction.

Beyond the reach of; at a point that precludes or makes (something) impossible or improbable; out of the reach, scope, or influence of: as, past redemption; past all sense of shame; past comprehension.

Examples

I would like to take this opportunity to pay tribute to all our people, both black and white, who, in the past year and before, made a contribution, however small, towards the new advances of our country further away from its painful past

So we ride on, past phantom gates and falling homes, past the once flourishing farms of the Smiths, the Gandys, and the Lagores, and find all dilapidated and half ruined, even there where a solitary white woman, a relic of other days, sits alone in state among miles of Negroes and rides to town in her ancient coach each day.

Jesus, 'that it makes a man remember his own sinfulness with penitence, not with pain -- that it makes the memory of past transgressions full of solemn joy, because the memory of _past_ transgressions but brings to mind the depth and rushing fullness of that river of love which has swept them all away as far as the east is from the west.